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Pennsylvania’s fruit orchards remain free of the Plum Pox virus. That’s the good news relayed by State Agriculture Secretary George Greig, reporting on the results of a survey conducted last summer in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York counties.

Satellite images of nighttime lights, normally used to detect population centers, also can help keep tabs on diseases in developing nations, according to new research. An international research team that includes Matthew Ferrari, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, found that the composited images accurately indicate fluctuations in population density—and thus the corresponding risk of epidemic—that can elude current methods of monitoring outbreaks. The research is expected to help medical professionals synchronize vaccination strategies with increases in population density.

From drug-sniffing beagles at airports to bloodhounds on the trail of an escaped convict, dogs are famous for their acute sense of smell.

In recent years, studies have suggested that their olfactory abilities go beyond what we had imagined, allowing them to sniff out cancer in human beings, as well as alert us to dangerous drops in our blood sugar.

We've all heard of CAT scans—but are we ready for DOG scans? Can dogs really smell disease?

"Thirty years ago, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that we had conquered disease. Unfortunately, that statement was incorrect," biologist Eddie Holmes told a rapt audience at Research Unplugged last Wednesday afternoon. The discussion focused on where viruses—such as HIV, SARS, and avian flu—originate, how they emerge in human populations, and how they evolve and survive.

Ken Weiss, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Genetics, has held positions at the University of Texas, Stanford University, the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University. He is interested in the genetic basis of morphological traits and how these relate to and are guided by evolution. His work largely involves studies of human polymorphisms and the amount of variation in genes related to human phenotypes, including disease-related traits.

I didn't want to be part of the study when I first read the advertisement in the paper. I was sick of all the doctors examining, testing, screening, only to hear the diagnosis: "We don't know." Maybe I didn't even care anymore and maybe, if I ignored all the questions I asked myself, I could be normal.

There is no feeling quite like finding a tick anchored to some forbidden region of your body. Am I going out on a limb here?

There are few things as disgusting as an engorged tick: that shiny grey satchel plump with your (or your dog's) dark blood; the pinpoint head; the short, curled legs; the awful lethargy.

Yet ticks fascinate as well as repel us. Having removed one, we examine it as it wriggles in the tweezers. We watch it sink to the bottom of the toilet. We make a big event out of putting the thing to death.